Method and system for searching for and navigating to user content and other user experience pages in a financial management system with a customer self-service system for the financial management system

• US 10,572,954 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2016
• Issued: 02/25/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Inventors: Goodyear, Todd Frey, Indyk, Benjamin, Podgorny, Igor A., Gielow, Christopher C., Chay, Jonathan
• Primary Examiner(s): Robinson, Kito R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bui, Toan Duc
• Application Number:
  US15/293,614
• Publication Number:
  US 20180108092A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,229 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90335 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/123 Tax preparation or submission
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/125 Finance or payroll

Abstract

Disclosed methods and systems provide domain-specific incremental search results for search query terms with a customer self-service system for a financial management system, according to one embodiment. Incremental search results are search results that are generated for search query terms, as a user enters the search query terms as part of a search query to a customer self-service system, according to one embodiment. The customer self-service system receives search query terms (e.g., a partial search query) in a search text box, searches user content (e.g., business transactions, personal transactions, etc.) and customer self-service system content for content that is relevant to the search query terms, and provides incremental search results navigation links within a results text box to enable users to easily see search results (e.g., transaction records) and to enable users to navigate to transactions records or other user content, from the results text box, according to one embodiment.

Claims

1. A computing system implemented method for searching for and navigating to user content and other user experience pages in a financial management system with a customer self-service system for the financial management system, comprising:

providing, with one or more computing systems, a customer self-service system associated with a financial management system;

storing, with the customer self-service system, user content data representing user content and customer self-service system content data representing customer self-service system content, in memory allocated for use by the customer self-service system, wherein the user content includes user profile data representing navigation history of a user in the financial management system and one or more of an estimated income level of the user and estimated education level of the user and whether the user is a repeat user or is alternatively a first-time user, and further includes one or more of business financial transaction records, tax return information, and personal financial transaction records;

providing search algorithm data representing a search algorithm that identifies, based at least on user profile data representing navigation history of a user in the financial management system and one or more of an estimated income level of the user and estimated education level of the user and whether the user is a repeat user or is alternatively a first-time user, one or more of portions of the user content and portions of the customer self-service system content, in response to one or more search query terms;

providing search text box data representing a search text box, to enable receipt of the one or more search query terms by the customer self-service system;

receiving the one or more of search query terms in the search text box as a portion of one of a plurality of potential search queries that are formable with the one or more search query terms;

determining, from a set of possible types of incremental search results, a type of incremental search result to be provided to the user, the set of possible incremental search results including a first type associated with performing a new action, a second type associated with reviewing a transaction record, and a third type associated with requesting help;

applying search query data representing the one or more search query terms to the search algorithm to generate, based at least on user profile data representing navigation history of a user in the financial management system and one or more of an estimated income level of the user and estimated education level of the user and whether the user is a repeat user or is alternatively a first-time user, incremental search results data representing a plurality of incremental search results, the incremental search results data being associated with the determined type of incremental search result, wherein the plurality of incremental search results includes the one or more of portions of the user content at least including the user profile data, the generated user content including one or more of business financial transaction records, tax return information, and personal financial transaction records, the plurality of incremental search results further including portions of the customer self-service system content;

identifying user experience page identifiers for some of the incremental search results;

associating the user experience page identifiers with navigation links that enable navigation to user experience pages associated with the user experience page identifiers within one or more of the financial management system and the customer self-service system;

updating user experience display data with the incremental search results data and the navigation links, as the user enters the one or more search query terms, to display the plurality of incremental search results in a results text box and to enable navigation to the user experience pages from the results text box, the results text box being positioned adjacent to the search text box in a user experience display represented by the user experience display data, to facilitate viewing of the plurality of the incremental search results by the user, and to facilitate navigation within the financial management system using the search text box, wherein financial management system content appears to be rendered beneath the results text box in the user experience display; and

transmitting the user experience display data to a user computing system, the user experience display data representing the user experience display.

2. The computing system implemented method of claim 1, wherein the financial management system is one or more of a personal financial management system, a business financial management system, a tax return preparation financial management system, or a combination of two or more of the personal financial management system, the business financial management system, and the tax return preparation financial management system.

3. The computing system implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user content is selected from a group of user content, consisting of:

transaction records for a business financial management system;

transaction records for a personal financial management system;

financial budgets for a personal financial management system; and

tax information for a tax return preparation financial management system.

4. The computing system implemented method of claim 1, wherein the navigation links are appended to the incremental search results or are integrated into the incremental search results by causing one or more words in some of the incremental search results to be hyperlinks that navigate a user from the results text box to one of the user experience pages associated with the user experience page identifiers.

5. The computing system implemented method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of incremental search results includes references to actions that are available for a user to complete using the financial management system,

wherein the user experience page identifiers are associated with user experience pages that enable the user to complete one or more of the actions,

wherein the user experience page identifiers are associated with the navigation links, which are selectable from the results text box.

6. The computing system implemented method of claim 1, wherein the customer self-service system is integrated into the financial management system and is one of a plurality of functions of the financial management system.

7. The computing system implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user computing system is a mobile computing device and updating the user experience display data with the incremental search results data facilitates searching the user content and the customer self-service system content from the mobile computing device.

8. The computing system implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining one or more of the plurality of potential search queries that are formable with the one or more search query terms; and

applying the one or more of the plurality of potential search queries to the search algorithm to generate at least part of the incremental search results data based on the one or more potential search queries.

9. The computing system implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying at least part of the user content data and the one or more search query terms to a predictive model to determine the plurality of potential search queries, which the user is likely to enter into the search text box; and

generating at least part of the incremental search results data based on the plurality of potential search queries.

10. The computing system implemented method of claim 1, wherein the results text box is positioned adjacent and below the search text box in user experience display.

11. The computing system implemented method of claim 1, wherein the search algorithm generates the incremental search results data at least partially based on topics of the one or more of search query terms, the topics being determined by a probabilistic topic model.

12. The computing system implemented method of claim 1, wherein the search algorithm includes one or more of a probabilistic topic model and a predictive model.

13. The computing system implemented method of claim 12, wherein the predictive model is trained using one or more training operations that are selected from a group of predictive model training operations, consisting of:

regression;

logistic regression;

decision trees;

artificial neural networks;

support vector machines;

linear regression;

nearest neighbor methods;

distance based methods;

naive Bayes;

linear discriminant analysis; and

k-nearest neighbor algorithm.

14. The computing system implemented method of claim 1, wherein the customer self-service system content is selected from a group of customer self-service system content, consisting of:

crowd-sourced customer support content;

service provider content;

definitions content, wherein the definitions content includes explanations of one or more acronyms and definitions of tax-specific terms;

suggested potential search queries; and

user tax data for the user.

15. The computing system implemented method of claim 1, wherein the user content is selected from a group of user content options, consisting of:

income of a business;

income of the user;

accounts receivable value;

accounts payable value;

amortization of one or more business assets;

amount of business taxes paid;

amount of personal state or federal taxes paid;

an estimate taxes due;

assets values;

financial reports;

business invoices;

business receipts;

payroll information;

inventory;

financial institution account information;

financial institution balances;

records of deductible expenses;

personal budget expenditures;

personal financial goals;

personal financial budgets;

personal income information; and

personal deductions information.

16. A financial management system having a customer self-service system that provides incremental search results for search query terms, comprising:

a user experience display that receives search query terms from users of a financial management system, and that provides incremental search content in response to receipt of the search query terms;

a user content data store that stores user content data representing user content, the user content including user profile data representing navigation history of a user in the financial management system and one or more of an estimated income level of the user and estimated education level of the user and whether the user is a repeat user or is alternatively a first-time user, and the user content data is stored, for the financial management system, in memory that is allocated for use by the financial management system;

a customer self-service system content store that stores customer self-service system content data, representing customer self-service system content, in memory that is allocated for use by a customer self-service system that provides customer self-service searches for the financial management system;

a navigation data store that stores user experience page identifier data representing user experience page identifiers for user experience pages that display one or more of the user content and the customer self-service system content, in memory that is allocated for use by the financial management system;

a search text box that receives search query term data representing the search query terms, wherein the search query terms constitute at least part of at least one potential search query, wherein the search text box is positioned within the user experience display and proximate to financial management system content provided to the users, the financial management system content being represented by financial management system content data;

a results text box that displays incremental search content data representing incremental search content that the customer self-service system provides in response to the at least one potential search query, wherein the results text box is adjacent to the search text box in the user experience display, wherein the results text box is rendered as overlaid over at least part of the financial management system content in the user experience display; and

a customer self-service system engine configured to apply the search query term data to a search algorithm to determine, from a set of possible types of incremental search results, a type of incremental search result to be provided to the user, the set of possible incremental search results including a first type associated with performing a new action, a second type associated with reviewing a transaction record, and a third type associated with requesting help, and to generate, by considering at least user profile data representing navigation history of a user in the financial management system and one or more of an estimated income level of the user and estimated education level of the user and whether the user is a repeat user or is alternatively a first-time user, the incremental search content data, in response to receipt of the search query term data,

wherein the incremental search content includes at least part of the user content representing one or more transaction records for the user in the financial management system, at least part of the customer self-service system content representing at least some of the customer self-service system content, and navigation links associated with user experience page identifiers for the user experience pages that display the at least part of the user content and the at least some of the customer self-service content,

wherein the incremental search content is displayed in real-time in the results text box to facilitate viewing of the incremental search content by the user as the user enters each of the one or more search query terms into the search text box,

wherein the navigation links, if selected by a user, navigate the user from the results text box to one of the user experience pages that display the at least part of the user content and the at least some of the customer self-service content.

17. The financial management system of claim 16, wherein the search algorithm generates the incremental search content data, at least partially based on:

topics of the one or more search query terms, topics of the user content, and topics of customer self-service system content.

18. The financial management system of claim 17, wherein the customer self-service system engine applies the one or more search query terms, the user content, and the customer self-service system content to a probabilistic topics model to identify the topics of the one or more search query terms, the topics of the user content, and the topics of customer self-service system content.

19. The financial management system of claim 16, wherein the customer self-service system content is selected from a group of customer self-service system content, consisting of:

crowd-sourced customer support content;

service provider content;

definitions content, wherein the definitions content includes explanations of one or more acronyms and definitions of tax-specific terms;

suggested potential search queries; and

user tax data for the user.

20. The financial management system of claim 16, wherein the user content is selected from a group of user content options, consisting of:

income of a business;

income of the user;

accounts receivable value;

accounts payable value;

amortization of one or more business assets;

amount of business taxes paid;

amount of personal state or federal taxes paid;

an estimate taxes due;

assets values;

financial reports;

business invoices;

business receipts;

payroll information;

inventory;

financial institution account information;

financial institution balances;

records of deductible expenses;

personal budget expenditures;

personal financial goals;

personal financial budgets;

personal income information; and

personal deductions information.

21. A system that searches for and navigates to user content and other user experience pages in a financial management system with a customer self-service system for the financial management system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory having instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a process comprising;

receiving search query data representing one or more search query terms, from a user;

determining, from a set of possible types of incremental search results, a type of incremental search result to be provided to the user, the set of possible incremental search results including a first type associated with performing a new action, a second type associated with reviewing a transaction record, and a third type associated with requesting help;

applying the search query data to a search algorithm to generate, based at least on user profile data representing navigation history of a user in the financial management system and one or more of an estimated income level of the user and estimated education level of the user and whether the user is a repeat user or is alternatively a first-time user, incremental search results data representing a plurality of incremental search results, wherein the plurality of incremental search results includes one or more portions of user content stored by a financial management system and at least including the user profile data, the generated user content including one or more of business financial transaction records, tax return information, and personal financial transaction records, the plurality of incremental search results further including portions of customer self-service system content stored by a customer self-service system;

identifying user experience page identifiers for some of the incremental search results by searching one or more data stores that store one or more of the user content and the customer self-service system content;

associating the user experience page identifiers with navigation links that enable navigation to user experience pages within one or more of the financial management system and the customer self-service system, the navigation links being represented by navigation link data, the user experience pages being associated with the user experience page identifiers;

updating user experience display data with the incremental search results data and the navigation link data, as the user enters the one or more search query terms into a search text box, to display the plurality of incremental search results in a results text box and to enable navigation to the user experience pages from the results text box, the results text box being positioned adjacent to the search text box in a user experience display represented by the user experience display data, to facilitate viewing the plurality of the incremental search results by the user, and to facilitate navigation within one or more of the financial management system and the customer self-service system using the search text box, wherein financial management system content appears to be rendered beneath the results text box in the user experience display; and

transmitting the user experience display data to a user computing system, the user experience display data representing the user experience display.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the financial management system is a personal financial management system, a business financial management system, a tax return preparation financial management system, or a combination of two or more of the personal financial management system, the business financial management system, and the tax return preparation financial management system.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the user content is selected from a group of user content, consisting of:

transaction records for a business financial management system;

transaction records for a personal financial management system;

financial budgets for a personal financial management system; and

tax information for a tax return preparation financial management system.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the navigation links are appended to the incremental search results or are integrated into the incremental search results by causing one or more words in some of the incremental search results to be selectable by the user to navigate the user from the results text box to one of the user experience pages associated with the user experience page identifiers.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the plurality of incremental search results includes references to actions that are available for a user to complete using the financial management system,

wherein the user experience page identifiers are associated with user experience pages that enable the user to complete one or more of the actions.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the results text box is positioned adjacent and below the search text box in user experience display.

27. The system of claim 21, wherein the search algorithm generates the incremental search results data at least partially based on topics of the one or more of search query terms, the topics being determined by a probabilistic topic model.

28. The system of claim 21, wherein the search algorithm includes one or more of a probabilistic topic model and a predictive model.

29. The system of claim 21, wherein the customer self-service system content is selected from a group of customer self-service system content, consisting of:

crowd-sourced customer support content;

service provider content;

definitions content, wherein the definitions content includes explanations of one or more acronyms and definitions of tax-specific terms;

suggested potential search queries; and

user tax data for the user.

30. The system of claim 21, wherein the user content is selected from a group of user content options, consisting of:

income of a business;

income of the user;

accounts receivable value;

accounts payable value;

amortization of one or more business assets;

amount of business taxes paid;

amount of personal state or federal taxes paid;

an estimate taxes due;

assets values;

financial reports;

business invoices;

business receipts;

payroll information;

inventory;

financial institution account information;

financial institution balances;

records of deductible expenses;

personal budget expenditures;

personal financial goals;

personal financial budgets;

personal income information; and

personal deductions information.